Bicycle MechanicsBroken bottom bracket? Tacoed wheel? If you're having problems with your bicycle, or just need help fixing a flat, drop in here for the latest on bicycle mechanics & bicycle maintenance.

I am in the middle of putting together a bike; BB went in, then cranks went on, and then I started putting the pedals on.

On the end of one spindle was an L, and on the other was an R. (As there often is.) So, being the trusting fool I am, I tried to put the L pedal in in the left crank. No deal. Not wanting to force anything, I tried the R pedal in the right crank. Again, no deal.

For a moment, I thought I had just had a stroke. Maybe I was confused about which hand was which. Nope, I have been good at that since kindygarden. Did I put the crank arms on the wrong sides? Nope. So, I gingerly tried the pedals in the "wrong" arms. Of course, they went right in.

Huh? Admittedly, these are cheap platform aftermarket pedals. Probably made in China. Maybe they have lead paint on them too.

I know mistakes can be made, but this just seems so fundamental that it is preposterous. Am I missing some other easy explanation?

I saw that on a bike on ebay once (it's easy to tell with Look pedals) and informed the seller that thr cranks were probably shot. He thanked me and ammended the description. The bike went pretty cheap, but I didn't bid out of fear for what else the seller might have done to it.

__________________
"Well, I guess you can cut the arts as much as you want... Sooner or later, these kids aren't going to have anything to read or write about." (Richard Dreyfus as Glenn Holland)

Seems to me that they just installed the axles backwards. Just swap them and you should be fine.

All of the pedals I'm familar with have the L & R engraved on the axles themselves, usually on the wrench flats. They had to be fundamentally mismarked if the L-marked axle screws into the right crankarm.